Adding guides and offset to extrude fnc.

bari

Adding these two opptions would make the extrude tool far more powerful,
Guide lines would save a lot of lofts, (which usually need another plan and sketch.)
Same for the extrude with offset. Saves planes and makes the design more elegant.

MBartlett21

You can use the second direction of extrude with it's opposite direction clicked.

romeograham

MBartlett21 said:

You can use the second direction of extrude with it's opposite direction clicked.

That will take care of the Extrude with Offset in the OP.

However, the 'Guide line' would allow you to extrude in a direction that in not necessarily normal to the sketch plane....this functionality in SolidWorks is quite useful. "Extrusion Direction" or something like that. With nothing selected, the extrusion is normal to the sketch plane. With an edge (or line) selected, the extrusion direction is parallel to the edge or line. With a plane selected, the extrusion direction is normal to that plane.

philip_7

Using the second direction of extrude is feasible, but sometimes not doesn't line up well with design intent.

For example, I want to extrude a 3" deep feature symmetric about an offset plane, or extruded 1" above and 2" below an offset plane. Using an offset command within the Extrude function allows this to be done without a separate plane and sketch - and if I want to change the distance of the offset, I can do so without changing the depth of the feature.

It CAN be done using two extrude directions in OS, but the distance has to be set for each direction instead of specifying the intended feature depth directly, and both extrude distances must be recalculated if I want to change the effective "offset" of the feature without changing its depth. Usually, in such a case I add another plane and sketch. I miss the offset extrude feature from SW.  (And also the extrude direction feature)